Inching toward a win: Editorial

Oregon 217 is one of several well-known snarl spots targeted in a statewide transportation package that lawmakers passed recently failing to reach a deal in the last legislative session.

Oregon 217 is one of several well-known snarl spots targeted in a statewide transportation package that lawmakers passed recently failing to reach a deal in the last legislative session.(Olivia Bucks/2001)

While the 79th Oregon Legislative session left much to be desired, lawmakers should be commended for their work to complete a difficult transportation package that has the potential to improve Oregonians' lives and livelihoods in every corner of the state.

The work was done right from the beginning. Democrats and Republicans toured Oregon together for several months, experiencing for themselves the state's failing infrastructure and hearing from Oregonians affected daily by the long-deferred work.

Read more on lawmakers wins and lossesThat commitment helped bind the bipartisan bill as it faced pushback late in the game from various interest groups protesting increased taxes. It also helped that Democrats pulled back slightly from some elements of the contentious clean fuel standard, which led to the demise of an earlier transportation package in 2015.

This $5.3 billion package provides new taxes and fees that fairly distributes the burden, from a broad gas tax to the option of tolls focused on drivers of specific freeways. Potentially, even, a toll for drivers who venture out at particular times. There's also a noteworthy, while relatively minor fee on the sale of new bicycles. That serves as a good reminder that we all share responsibility for the roads on which we commute, if only on two wheels.

The package aims to deliver on many much-needed fronts, most notably tackling three massive metro-area chokepoints on Interstate 5, Interstate 84 and Oregon 217. But equally necessary is the money aimed for transit in underserved communities across the state.

Unfortunately, legislators' performance on other items on Oregonians' "must do" list was a mixed bag.

At the beginning of the session, lawmakers faced a daunting $1.8 billion deficit for the 2017-2019 budget. That shortfall - when the state is expecting record revenue in the coming biennium - should have been a wake-up call for legislators to curb the state's soaring spending. But it wasn't for Democrats. They resisted Republican and business community pleas to bring health and public employee pension benefits more in line with other states to free up more tax dollars for education and other public services.

Instead, legislators made few changes to limit health benefits and blocked efforts to reform the Public Employees Retirement System, even though employers' required contributions will increase for the next several years due to a $22 billion unfunded liability. Proposals to ease the burden on public employers' budgets by having employees contribute to their own pensions never even came to a vote.

Legislators did successfully plug one hole: identifying funds to cover the cost of the state's Medicaid program whose expansion was seeded by federal dollars. But it remains to be seen whether that package of taxes on hospitals and health insurance plans will survive. Opponents who object to a tax that will hit college students, small businesses and K-12 districts are seeking to refer those portions to voters.

Legislators were able to leave with a balanced budget, thanks to better than expected revenue, the controversial hospital and health-insurance tax and a host of Band-Aids. But their inaction on PERS, spending and revenue means those problems will continue to grow, unchecked.

The best possible outcome for Oregon now is that lawmakers take the lessons they learned in creating and shepherding the transportation package this session and duplicate them in the next session - as opposed to waiting until 2019 - for the work they left undone. In a short session, our elected leaders might be able to commit to working until the end this time.

-- The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board

Oregonian editorials

Editorials reflect the collective opinion of The Oregonian/OregonLive editorial board, which operates independently of the newsroom.

Members of the editorial board are Laura Gunderson, Helen Jung, Mark Katches and John Maher.